Target-setting, early-career academic identities and the measurement culture of UK higher education

Smith, J. Russell

doi:10.1080/07294360.2017.1288708

Cited by 46 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In the UK, the appointment of most ECAs is subject to a three-year probationary period, during which ECAs are set a series of targets to achieve, including publications, teaching evaluations, research funding or taking on major administration roles. These targets can lead to significant stress and anxiety, alongside a feeling of 'surveillance' (Smith 2017).…”

Section: Early Career Development In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current study explores ECAs perceptions of their work environment along with their beliefs about their future career development, then explores relationships between these factors and intrapersonal personality dimensions. This study focuses on two Universities in England and aligns with a growing interest in the experiences of ECAs across multiple international contexts, including Spain (Castelló, McAlpine, and Pyhältö 2017), Australia (Bosanquet et al 2017;McKay and Monk 2017), and Canada (Acker and Webber 2017), as well as the UK (Smith 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Hollywood

McCarthy

Spencely

et al. 2019

Journal of Further and Higher Education

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The higher education sector is undergoing considerable changes to its working conditions. From regular scrutiny of individual research and teaching quality, audits of individual academic performance, to growing expectations arising from the culture of 'student experience', it is widely recognised that higher education is a turbulent sector. Amongst Early Career Academics (ECAs), initial transitions into this sector of work can have considerable consequences for career development and willingness to remain within the higher education profession. Drawing on a mixedmode survey exploring the experience of UK-based ECAs, we highlight distinct intrapersonal and experiential factors which relate to variations in the perceived potential for career development and wellbeing. The data suggest that it is not just situational factors such as the departmental environment and job security that relate to the 'imagined futures' of ECAs; it is also important to gain a deeper understanding of how intrapersonal dimensions, such as an individual's personality, shape the experience of the early stages of an academic career. Our qualitative data shed further light on the experiences that can influence the job satisfaction of ECAs. The findings are discussed in the context of a growing body of international research on ECAs, and the rapidly changing Higher Education sector in the UK. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Early Career Development In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Hollywood

McCarthy

Spencely

et al. 2019

Journal of Further and Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…We sought to discern the complementarities and potential tensions between employment status and simultaneous doctoral candidature. Considering recent concerns over audit pressures (Smith, 2017) and institutional imperatives, the experiences of dual-status academics is a fruitful area for exploration.…”

Section: A Chat Perspective On Dual-status Academicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While institutions encourage, or even require, staff to undertake a doctorate, little thought seems to have been given to their needs. Academic life is paradoxical: it can be highly autonomous or rigidly restrictive, depending on teaching and citizenship activities (Smith, 2017). Institutional schedules tend to the restrictive: research skills workshops, for instance, are often timetabled in identical slots year-on-year.…”

Section: Institutional Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juggling competing activities: academic staff as doctoral candidates

Smith

Billot

Clouder

et al. 2019

Higher Education Research & Development

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This article explores the experiences of a group of established academic staff in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, as they undertake a doctorate in their home institutions. Our interest is in how individuals negotiate this dual status from a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) stance which explores how rules, tools, community and divisions of labour, and interacting activity systems, shape doctoral experiences. The focus in this article, having analysed their detailed narrative accounts, is on how academics experience three interdependent activity systems: those surrounding the thesis, the institutional context, and the home-life spheres. Issues related to time, workload and supervision issues, variability in collegial support and impact on personal priorities and time emerged. There is a range of particularitiesfrom easy access to resources/supervisors, to inflexible institutional regulationsapplicable to this group of doctoral candidates. Negotiating life as an academic with concurrent doctoral candidature provides positive outcomes in terms of teaching, research confidence and general personal and professional development. However, a range of difficulties can also be encountered, particularly in relation to personal and professional relationships, and workload management.

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“…These responsibilities covered all aspects of academic practice from teaching to research, from module or programme leadership to the pastoral care of students. For some, the issue centred on a lack of training or experience, for others, a lack of a sense of workload priorities (Smith, 2017). For several interviewees, what they saw as unreasonable expectations from their HEI was driving them to resign or to consider resigning.…”

Section: Managing Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s very different here: practice-based academic staff induction and retention

King

Roed

Wilson

2018

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management

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The sociologist, Max Weber (1864-1920), suggested that few could withstand the frustrations of academic life. As the strategic management of human resources begins to differentiate higher education institutions (HEIs) in league tables, the costs of voluntary staff turnover (attrition) become more significant. In this paper, we consider links between induction (orientation) and retention for academic staff. We report on a qualitative study of thirty academic staff in five United Kingdom HEIs who were recruited on the basis of their professional experience. Their practice-based knowledge lends our participants particular insight into their HEI induction experience which, where found wanting, led in several cases to resignation. We analyse the induction experiences of our participants to glean explanations for these perceived shortcomings. Since induction interventions are thought to lead to improved retention, we recommend policy and practice changes to induction which may benefit all academic staff.

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Target-setting, early-career academic identities and the measurement culture of UK higher education

Cited by 46 publications

References 29 publications

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Juggling competing activities: academic staff as doctoral candidates

It’s very different here: practice-based academic staff induction and retention

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